


Students and Teachers

by LogicalBookThief



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, and ford becomes dipper's padawan, can't forget that all-important pig, in which dipper helps ford be a better brother, mentor!Dipper, mentor!Ford, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 03:32:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6178615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LogicalBookThief/pseuds/LogicalBookThief
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Weirdmaggedon over and Stan on the mend, Dipper realizes that he never did get chance to talk to Ford about the apprenticeship... </p><p>A missing scene from the finale that  wrote for closure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Students and Teachers

Something wet licked a stripe across his cheek, causing Dipper to slink his way out of a deep, warm blanket of slumber. With a few rapid blinks, he found Waddles' pink snout nestled against his face, while the pig remained blissfully asleep, maybe dreaming about a whole cornicorn worth of cobs. When in reality, all he’d managed to do was slather Dipper in slobber.

 _Yuck!_ Stan was right, that stuff was jarring.

Meanwhile, Mabel snored peacefully on the other side of her beloved pig, and Soos’ whistling exhales echoed nearby. All of them were curled on the floor, the twins having slipped off Grunkle Stan’s lap sometime after returning to the Shack and flitting through photographs and mementos, and had been too exhausted to reclaim their spot.

The house was silent in the aftermath of the apocalypse, unbelievably so, and Dipper appeared to be alone in his awareness of this.

At least, he _thought_ he was alone, until he heard the quiet call of his name.

“Dipper?”

Following the whisper, he glanced up and saw Great Uncle Ford awake and beside Grunkle Stan, somehow managing to fit together, squished within the small space the lazy chair offered. Stan’s mouth hung open slightly, his familiar snores competing with Mabel’s for the prize of most loud and obnoxious, and he _might_ have been drooling on his brother’s sleeve; yet Great Uncle Ford didn’t seem to mind.

In fact, he looked like the picture of content, with an arm draped around Stan’s shoulder as the latter slept on, the open scrapbook still cradled to his chest. 

Grunkle Stan's memory still remained shaky, but a lot of stuff was starting to come back to him, a tentative step in the right direction; and Dipper no longer had the gut-churning fear that his mind would never return. It would take some time, some help from his family – that was alright, though.

He had come to accept that there weren’t always easy solutions or perfect happy endings. But there would always be hope.

“Mornin’,” Dipper greeted around a yawn, softly, so as not to wake his sister. “…It is morning, right?”

Ford’s mouth twisted wryly. “Yes. Hard to mistake when it’s the first time you’ve seen the sun in days.”

Dipper hummed in agreement. Had it really only been a few days since he and Great Uncle Ford had come rushing from the Shack in time to watch a crevice crack open the sky, a wave of weirdness gush out, isolating the town in a bubble of timeless dark and destruction?

The previous events of that day came back to him in a flash of revelation, and Dipper nearly gasped at the force of his remembrance.

He had completely _forgotten_ about his promise to become Ford’s apprentice! And in the ensuing chaos of rescuing his uncle and the final showdown with Bill, there had been no time or place to tell him that he would have to respectfully decline the offer, no matter how prestigious.

Now he wracked his brain, trying to think of a way to inform him of his change of heart without hurting his uncle’s feelings.

The image of Ford’s devastated face as he explained what happened to Stan was still fresh in his mind, and _how_ could Dipper reject him so soon after the man had lost his brother in one of the worst possible ways? What kind of nephew would he be–

He put a stop to that train of thought almost immediately. He was being stupid, letting his fear of disappointing the Author override what he wanted. Besides, Stan was _not_ lost anymore, and he was on the mend to boot. So there was literally no good reason why he shouldn’t tell Ford right here and now.

Dipper swallowed.

Might as well do it before he lost his nerve.

“Great Uncle Ford, there’s something…” He stuttered and stumbled over his words, nervous despite his resoluteness. “S-Something I have to…”

Ford beamed kindly at him, and _oh geez,_ way to make this more difficult.

“My boy, after everything we’ve been through together, you should know that you can tell me anything.”

Taking these words to heart, Dipper inhaled deep, and blurted out, “I can’t stay and be your apprentice.”

Of all the things the possible issues that had crossed his uncle’s mind, apparently _that_ hadn’t been among them. Ford blinked at him, mystified.

“Well, I guess I _could,”_ Dipper elaborated. “But I’ve decided not to. Because I want to grow up with my sister. I realized there’s no place I’d rather be than by her side, not even a place as amazing as Gravity Falls.”

“Hm,” said Ford after a few seconds of pause, during which Dipper mentally braced for a bad reaction. However, there was not a hint of hard feelings evident on his uncle’s face, only a knowing smile. “I'm pretty sure that was a given at this point, don’t you think?”

Gaping, Dipper replied, “Y-You mean you’re not–?”

“Disappointed?” Ford shook his head. “No – not as I would’ve been before, at any rate. I will miss your company, of course, but I’ve come to understand that…your best place _is_ with Mabel. And I should have never implied differently.”

Chuckling, Ford went on, not without irony, “Here I thought you should stay as my apprentice so that _I_ could teach you all I know. But in the end, you and your sister taught me the most important lesson of all.”

Dipper couldn’t help but awe at the praise, at the thought of _him_ teaching the seemingly all-knowing Author, the figure of mystery and intelligence he’d spent half the summer chasing, a lesson so profound.

“Without you two banding everyone together, Bill’s plan might never have been foiled.”

“Or Grunkle Stan,” Dipper added on instinct.

A shadow passed over his mentor’s face, and for a moment, the man looked severely pained.

“Yes, well,” Ford muttered in a low tone, fingers tightening around his brother’s shoulder; Stan shifted at the grip, but did not awaken. “Perhaps he would not have had to, if we had followed your kids’ example from the start…”

“He’ll be okay now,” Dipper comforted, not liking the way his uncle’s expression lingered on the despair. “As long as he has someone to look out for him.”

Ford lightened at his easy optimism. “Think so?”

Dipper nodded, returning the smile tenfold. “You can trust me. I’m an _expert_ in my field.”

Great Uncle Ford laughed heartily. “Maybe I should become your apprentice instead,” he said, and while the words sound like a joke, the tone seemed absolutely serious. “You wouldn’t mind giving an old man a few more pointers on being a brother, would you? I must admit, I’m a bit out of practice.”

Cheeks dusted with the pink of pride and elation, Dipper grinned from ear-to-ear. “It would be my honor.”


End file.
